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Project transfer and handover from program organization to a continuous development team
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
Electronic archive copy is available via Aalto Thesis Database.
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en
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46 + 4
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Abstract
At the end of each project or program a change is inevitable. In case of software development this change often means a transition to another phase, such as maintenance or continuous development. On many occasions this change also requires a project handover to be successful.
But when a large development and digitalization program comes to an end and needs to be transferred into the next phase towards continuous development model, and its project team needs to be reformed into a continuous development team with new responsibilities and team practices, how will the handover be done? What are the things and barriers to consider when planning for the transition, how should the future team operate, and what kind of knowledge needs to be documented and transferred?
These are the research questions this case study examines by focusing on a specific case of the case company and resulting in a team handbook for the newly formed Case Team to help with the project handover and transition. Based on the findings of the interviews conducted during this study, the handbook focuses on combining proper technical documentation and access to it for the whole team, defining and documenting roles and responsibilities of the team members, and providing a plan for improved team practices, such as more inclusive meetings and defined communication model.
This thesis contributes to the research of project transfer and change management by deep diving into a specific case of project handover, resulting in a team handbook template that can be used as a theoretical framework for both documentation and planning for change or transition in software development projects in the future. The results of this study align with previous research findings about the crucial role of technical documentation, test automation and version management in project handover. This Case Study also points out the major role of carefully designed and successfully implemented support model in the process of project transfer. Moreover, the findings suggest that agile practices are expected inside a development team, and lack of them is seen as an inconvenience.